So what happened in book one?

NaNoWriMo Mid-Month Report

How is NaNoWriMo going for you this year? We’re a little over halfway through the month and thought we would check in. We’ll let you know how it’s going for us and would love to hear the same from you! This is our third blog post about NaNoWriMo, so if you missed it, check out our previous posts about writing in November and connecting with other writers on-line.

What’s your word count so far? Have you stayed on schedule to reach your goal by the end of the month? Have you enjoyed the time spent immersed in your story? We want to know!

Here are a few more questions we each answered. Please comment and let us know your answers to these questions or share any information you would like about your month so far.

How hard has it been to stick to the schedule you were hoping to keep?

Sara – As far as my time schedule plans go, I think I have been doing really well. As far as word count schedule, I have found it very difficult to not fall behind. I’m usually not very far off the mark any given day, but I’m always a little under my goal. I think I simply do not write as fast as I thought I would. But I’ve come to terms with it and am writing everyday so that’s something!

Stacy – It hasn’t been very difficult. There have only been a few days so far in which I didn’t get to write. Even if I don’t get to it until late at night, I have tried to get in at least an hour every day. I work part-time from home as an auditor and never seem to get to my audit work done if I put it off until late in the day. It has been different with writing. I have been excited to sit down at my computer to work on my manuscript even if it’s really late.

Have you hit any writer’s block so far since you’re trying to generate this much content at once?

Sara – I have not had any writers block so far. I have a very detailed outline, so I know exactly where my characters are going next, especially for the first part of the book that I just finished up. We’ll see how it goes moving forward to a section where I don’t have my chapters planned so thoroughly.

Stacy– I haven’t hit writer’s block per se, but I have had a couple days where I felt like what I wrote wasn’t working very well. I just seemed to ramble. In these cases, I was writing sections of the book I hadn’t outlined as heavily, so I wasn’t sure exactly where I was headed and didn’t feel satisfied with what I generated. It will be interesting to tackle these sections when I do my first round of edits.

What type of scenes are easiest and/or most fun to write? Which ones are the hardest to write?

Sara – I have had the most fun writing scenes between my main characters that I have been imagining for a long time. In contrast, the most difficult ones have been those scenes that I only have a vague idea for how they should go. I do enjoy writing them; however, they are not as easy for me.

Stacy – So far, I have had the most fun writing conversations, especially emotional ones. The hardest scenes to write have been the descriptive sequences, especially the setting/world-building ones. I enjoy writing them, yet I feel like I get too wordy. I want to record every last detail of the fantasy world I see in my mind, but I think I will need to do some major cutting on these descriptions during the editing process.

Did you do any editing or find yourself wanting to edit?

Sara – My goal has been to not edit along the way during NaNoWriMo. I have done fairly well with this, but I find myself really wanting to go back through scenes instead of simply moving forward. It is a huge temptation for me. I try to only read the last paragraph that I wrote and just move on from there. If I read more than that, I find myself in an editing loop that I can’t get out of!

Stacy – I have done very little review or editing this month. I usually read the last scene I wrote the previous day before I start my daily writing, making small edits like correcting glaring grammar mistakes or adding a word I left out. But I’m not editing at my normal rate. Before November hit, I had been writing 3,000-4,000 words every Friday and then editing this work the following week. I would go back over each section multiple times, editing for both content and grammar. I feel much more confident in these chapters than the ones I’ve generated in November. But I know I won’t be able to meet my 30,000 word goal if I spend a lot of time editing. I’m excited to re-visit this new content as soon as NaNoWriMo is over because I know it needs a lot of work.

Again, let us know how your writing has gone so far. And watch for our NaNoWriMo wrap-up post at the end of November. Good luck in the second half of the month!

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The second half of 2019 looks very bright book-wise: Dark Age by @Pierce_Brown, Ninth House by @LBardugo, The Starless Sea by @erinmorgenstern, & Chain of Gold by @cassieclare. I’m SO EXCITED for each of these!!!